In more than 100 regions in the U.S., the number of foreign-born residents is growing faster than the number of native-born residents. Cincinnati isn't among this group, but it should be.

Increasing the number of immigrants living in a city means more than ethnic festivals and better restaurants. It usually brings greater economic activity, higher housing prices, more population growth and a richer cultural life.

That's why Cincinnati and the surrounding region should support and develop Mayor John Cranley's plan to attract more immigrants to the region. Cranley shared his plan for a task force with The Enquirer last month, and he's assembling that group to figure out what the next steps are.

In the past five years a few dozen cities have formally declared their intent to bring in more immigrants. The Cincinnati region is late to the game, and we're starting farther back than most cities: Of the largest 100 counties in the country, only Jefferson County, Ala., has a lower rate of foreign-born residents than Hamilton County's 4.6 percent.

But we can learn from the lessons of those other cities and benefit from the work they've already done. Welcoming America is a grass-roots coalition of about 30 cities and counties that have declared their intention to accept immigrants and encourage immigration. Several, including Dayton, Columbus and Louisville, are close enough to create a regional network of cities that could cooperate on attracting immigrants to resettle here.

With federal immigration reform stalled for now, it's up to cities, counties and states to create policies that benefit immigrants and the wider communities they live in.

What immigrants bring

The tangible benefits of increased immigration include:

• Population growth. Steady population growth creates new customers for area businesses and a need for renovated or new housing. The Cincinnati region is growing more slowly than the country at large, and nearly all the local growth comes from births. Because most economic activity comes from personal consumption, the slow rate of population growth impairs economic growth. Attracting more immigrants could boost that.

• Jobs, manufacturing, startups and technology. Critics of increased immigration fear that adding immigrants will take jobs away from American-born workers. A study released in September by the Partnership for a New American Economy found, though, that communities with more immigrants retained more manufacturing jobs than those with fewer – an estimated 46 manufacturing jobs created or preserved for every 1,000 immigrants in a county.

Immigrants are also 30 percent more likely to start their own businesses than non-immigrants, and about one out of 10 immigrant workers owns a business, according to the Small Business Administration. They are also more likely to work as engineers and scientists. At large companies like Kroger and Procter & Gamble, immigrant employees offer valuable insights into their increasingly diverse customer bases.

• Increased housing values. The same study found that immigrants increase the value of housing, with the greatest gains in more affordable markets such as Houston, Phoenix and Las Vegas. It's significant that more expensive metropolitan areas are becoming less attractive to immigrants, who are seeking out affordable places to live. That gives Cincinnati, with a low cost of living, an advantage. And the city and its first-ring suburbs especially need repopulating. By matching immigrants with vacant or blighted housing, municipalities can benefit from new residents and an improved housing stock.

Immigrants are also increasingly wary of states like Arizona, Alabama and Georgia that have tried to pass strict immigration laws. Although many of those laws have been overturned, their initial passage and the sentiments behind them have convinced some immigrants to migrate within the U.S. to friendlier places.

How to attract them

Once local officials are convinced of the benefits of attracting immigrants, here are some strategies to help woo them:

• Declare intentions. Mayor Cranley is in the process of appointing a task force, led by consultant Bruce Healey, to develop a strategy for attracting more immigrants. There's power in simply declaring a city or county's intentions to be more welcoming. Adopting such a resolution signals an intention to current and potential residents that is surprisingly powerful.

• Involve private, public and nonprofit groups. Attracting immigrants isn't just a task for municipal governments. Businesses, from global corporations like GE Aviation to local startups, all benefit from a diverse group of employees and customers and should be enlisted in the effort.

The Diverse by Design initiative sponsored by Agenda 360 and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber has several years of experience trying to make area employers more welcoming and receptive to immigrants. Nonprofits like Santa Maria Community Center have been working with newcomers on language and job skills, and religious groups have led efforts to resettle refugees. All these and more should be enlisted in making Cincinnati more attractive to immigrants.

• Attract a wide range of immigrants. The professionals who move to Cincinnati to work at Fortune 500 companies are different than the Bhutanese and West African refugees who have settled here, but they all have something to contribute.

Of particular interest is the EB-5 visa, which allows immigrants to become permanent U.S. residents if they invest at least $1 million in an American economic development project. The minimum investment can be lowered to $500,000 in poor areas, and Cranley is right to try to secure that exemption for parts of the city that qualify, as those are the places most in need of investment.

• Make immigration part of a broader diversity effort. Other disadvantaged groups can resent a campaign to attract immigrants because they fear they'll lose jobs or housing. Leaders of any pro-immigration initiative should make a point of including other minority groups and explain how the entire region benefits from the presence of immigrants.

• Find allies. Welcoming America, the grass-roots organization, now has about 30 cities and counties nationwide that have launched efforts to welcome and attract immigrants. This region can learn from others that have already undertaken pro-immigrant initiatives.

As Cincinnati develops an immigration strategy, it should look for neighboring cities, townships and counties willing to work with it to make this a broader effort.

• Make it part of the region's DNA. Between 1990 and 2000 Tennessee experienced a rapid rate of immigrant growth, which led to dozens of anti-immigration proposals at both the local and state levels. The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) was founded to advocate for more immigrant-friendly policies, which led to creation of the Welcoming Tennessee Initiative as a corresponding outreach effort.

Welcoming Tennessee recruits ambassadors to speak on behalf of immigrants. It hosts presentations and shares the stories of those who have moved to Tennessee from far away. It's also enlisted people from all walks of life to extol the virtues of immigration whenever possible.

"You won't hear a speech by (the Nashville) mayor or a chamber of commerce leader or someone from social services that doesn't mention our diversity," says TIRRC spokesman Eben Cathey. "It's sunken into the collective brain of the community that we're better socially and economically because of our diversity."

The anti-immigration proposals in Nashville and other Tennessee cities have stopped. And despite the increasing number of immigrants – or maybe in part because of them – Nashville led the country in job growth in 2012. ⬛